“I did not know of the security community, and Mr Robot has opened doors and I want to talk to Sam about bringing the rest of the cast to this”.
In an interview with Qualys CTO Wolfgang Kandek at RSA Conference in San Francisco, Malek claimed that he researched the role for the acclaimed show Mr Robot as he would any other, and with this he used the internet a lot and read “Hacking for Dummies”. “All the coding was accurate and there was no CGI used on the screen, it was me typing,” he said.
He said that the intention of Mr Robot executive producer Sam Esmail was to be accurate, and Malek claimed that he had seen movies which did not do such a good portrayal and deal with every aspect of the show. “The CSI:Cyber cast applauded me for the accuracy, and I wanted to raise it up a level,” he said.
In preparing for the role, Malek said: “I didn’t worry about it unless I was learning my lines and hitting my marks, but when I sat down at a computer with our technical advisor, I wanted to understand that the work I did was two-fold and as authentic as possible.”
Malek also talked about the rewards, love and fanmail he got for the show being worth it, especially for his portrayal of a character with ADHD and levels of autism. “It is incredibly fulfilling for everyone on the show, I love the response to it and that people can relate to him,” he said.
Set to head off to begin shooting on series two tonight, Malek said that the show was renewed when the initial series began to air as it coincided with the Sony Pictures hack. “I hate that is happened, but I think it helped us get renewed,” he said.
Asked by Kandek if he had learned anything about security from making the show, Malek said he had changed passwords and started to use two-factor authentication, as well as becoming more conscious of what was being put on social networks.
